♪ fly me to the moon and let me play among the sta stars ♪ >> they were the marco polos and magellans of our times, and in september 2012, they said farewell to a modern day columbus. >> neil armstrong became a testament to all americans of what can be achieved through vision and dedication. >> but that eulogy for the first man on the moon delivered by the last to leave it captures the spirit of all those who made that journey. ♪ let me see what spring is like on jupiter and mars ♪ >> american heroes, whose final mission ended more than 40 years ago.

i'm neil cavuto reporting from the kennedy space center visitor complex in florida. it is hard for people my age to believe that most americans weren't even alive the last time a man walked on the moon. apollo 17 astronaut gene cernan on december 14th, 1972. a number of the explorers who made the trip have passed away. the rest are now in their late 70s, some 80s, but the story they tell still sounds like something out of the future, not the past. it's a story about how america, with a combination of vision, high-techno-how, and good old-fashioned courage answered the challenge of arrival, stepped into the unknown and achieved what almost seems as unbelievable today as it was a half century ago. ♪ it was october 4th, 1957, at the height of the cold war that the soviets launched a beachball-sized satellite named

sputnik, which orbited the earth in just over an hour and a half. >> they tell us the world may never be the same again. >> in 1957, whether i was still in flight school, sputnik was launched. that's the beginning of the space age. >> reporter: the dawn of the space age was the start of the space race. america competing with the soviets for scientific dominance, but in a world where americans dug bomb shelters and worried about missile gaffes, science specialed national security. >> the cold war had been prolonged. it was going on. nobody could really see an end to it. there were all of the underlying risks of nuclear confrontation at the time. >> reporter: the next step in that race, manned launches that required a few good men -- seven to start with. >> there's 110 originally people that were selected by the air force and the navy to become astronauts. it whittled down to 32 after the interviews and things like that.

32 went to loveless clinic, and i was the only guy to flunk. >> reporter: how come you didn't pass the mercury physicals? >> i had what was known as a high bilirubin, which is pink in your blood. >> reporter: and you said when were you a boy, you would be into dinosaurs or rockets. >> when i didn't get into the mercury program, the original selection, i said, i was interested in rockets before those guys could spell it. now he? . >> it began with the goals of putting a human in orbit and doing so before the soviets did. on the second count, they failed. three and a half years after the sputnik be show, on april 12th, 1961, the soviets outpaced the u.s. once again when cosmonaut became the first european in space. >> they beat us into orbit, so we were behind. we were lagging.

>> america scrambled to catch up. less than one month later, on may 5th, allen shepherd, one of the mercury seven, became the first american in space. just over three months into his presidency, john f. kennedy, like millions of other americans across the country, was glued to his television. >> alan shepherd became an instant hero that the life needed but the cosmonaut had circled the earth a month before. >> jfk sought out advice from nasa's top engineers. one was famed rocket scientist von braun. >> huntsville, alabama, president kennedy here with von braun, begins a two-day tour -- >> i read a letter that he wrote to kennedy, when he said, how can we beat the russians?

and von braun's letter basically said, we can't beat them they were except to be the first on the moon. and so, that's what we committed to. >> may 25th, 1961, the president made a dramatic announcement before a joint session of congress. >> i believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. >> we didn't go to the moon to collect rocks. we went to the moon to stick the flag in the moon before the russians did. >> if we didn't have the cold war, would kennedy have had the same -- >> no. >> -- zeal? >> no. >> to have something that would show america's ability to respond to a challenge as well as to do it in what in a full, open, and peaceful way, i think really did catch the imagination of the american people and of the politicians at the time. >> catch the imagination, it did.

>> we're under way. >> on february 20th, 1962, john glenn, in a space shut dubbed friendship 7 became the first american to orbit the earth. >> oh, that view is tremendous. >> we choose to go to the moon in this decade and dot other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. >> the mercury program would ultimately have six manned flights. each mission a step closer to the ultimate goal. then, as mercury was winding down, on november 22nd, 1963, president kennedy was assassinated. >> to honor his memory and the future of the works that he started, the nasa law enforcement operation center in florida shall hear hereafter be known as the john f. kennedy space center. >> in april 1964, gemini was launched. >> it was a two-man spacecraft.

the gemini program was specifically to show that we could do a rendezvous and dock. >> in order to get to the moon, you had to have a capability of two weeks in space. you had to be able to rendezvous. you had to be able to -- do e.v.a., get outside the spacecraft in a space suit, and you had to have a guided re-entry. we practiced all of those missions in gemini. so gemini was an extremely important part of the lunar program. >> on june 3rd, 1965, on gemini iv, astronaut edward white became the first american to perform an e.v.a. -- extravehicular activity. or spacewalk. >> i feel like $1 million. >> america was still playing catch-up, however. soviet cosmonauts had performed a space walk three months earlier. the big prize was still up there in the night sky, and the gemini missions were moving forward. each one providing nasa with more information necessary for that ultimate quest.

>> we're on our way, frank. >> in december 1965, gemini vii rendezvoused with vi-a in orbit, making it the first manned spacecraft to do to. vii doubled the amount of time any man had been in space. >> many doctors of that time said, you know, people can't live in zero gravity for too long, and, of course, we went up there for two weeks, and we did see some changes in the body. but it was nothing that couldn't be overcome and -- >> that was significant, right? because that meant that we could go to the moon and we could chance a mission of that duration, if not longer? >> yeah. >> that changed people's perspective? >> because the moon flights were saying the max would probably be a two-week flight. >> right. >> we had to make sure that the people were, you know, able to function in that respect. >> 14-day mission has shown us that man can indeed adapt to the spaceflight environment. the additional data allows us to

medically commit men to a lunar mission. >> america's next step, the apollo program, would get us to the moon, but apollo almost cratered as soon as it began. fox news reporting continues after the break.

everybody knew a moon mission was a supremely dangerous undertaking.

still, few foresaw astronauts actually dying on the launch pad during a dress rehearsal, no less. just feet away from desperate technicians helpless to save them. on friday, january 27, 1967, three astronauts -- virgil grissom, edward hice -- entered the craft designated as-204, to conduct a preflight test. that test conductors were dubbed ready to pick up the count, and ground instruments showed an unexplained rise in the oxygen flow into the spacecraft. about six seconds later, the frantic voice of ed white came over the intercom. a fire in the cockpit. >> they were inside a spacecraft in pure oxygen, that's a recipe for disaster. all they needed was a spark, and unfortunately, they got one. >> from a piece of exposed, uninsulated wiring. why couldn't they get out?

>> the hatch was on the inside pressing against the hull. so to remove the hull, you had to turn it in. when the fire started, you have 50,000 pounds pressure holding that door in place. >> all three men were dead. >> we lived near the wife of one of the crewmember, pat white. >> bill anders had the unenviable task of breaking the news to the wife of edward white. >> and that was a pretty tough deal. when i stopped in front of the house, she saw me coming, and even though she had not heard, i could just tell by the look on her face that she knew something was wrong. >> the three were given heroes' funerals, and in their honor, mission as-204 was redesignated apollo 1. it could well have been the last apollo. >> that put the apollo program on hold. frank mormon became very instrumental in reviewing the whole issue. >> nasa investigated itself, so that kept the inside, and not

anyone on the outside knew what was going on. it shows the confidence the public had in us. we got a team together to point out the failures and fix it. >> his testimony to congress helped convince the government and the public that though there would always be risks, nasa could learn from its mistakes, and the apollo program should go ahead. pa paradoxically, it may have let them get to the moon faster than schedule. >> we had the opportunity to learn from that mistake, very tragic and sad. but to accelerate the program. and i'm not alone in having said that the fire really did make it possible to meet kennedy's goal to land on the moon by theecade. >> nasa never designated any flights apollo 2 or 3. apollo 4, 5, and 6 were unmanned missions to test the safety of the rockets.

it took almost two years before another american crew went into orbit. apollo 7, october 11, 1968. >> it's okay, thrust. >> the space program was back, but a slow re-entry wasn't going to be enough to meet the deadline by the soviets. it would require a dramatic change of plans. coming up, hey, buddy? oh, hey, flo. you want to see something cool? snapshot, from progressive. my insurance company told me not to talk to people like you. you always do what they tell you? no... try it, and see what your good driving can save you. you don't even have to switch. unless you're scared. i'm not scared, it's... you know we can still see you. no, you can't. pretty sure we can... try snapshot today -- no pressure.

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1968 was a year chaos and conflict in the united states. martin luther king jr. and robert f. kennedy assassinated. riots engulfing our cities. the escalating war in vietnam,

claiming lbj's presidency and alienating millions of americans. against this turbulent backdrop, nasa resumed its manned flights and aimed to test in space the craft that it hoped to land on the moon before year's end. a sudden change of plans turned apollo 8 into another make-or-break mission. >> apollo 8 was not going to be a lunar flight. apollo 8 was going to be an orbital flight to test the lunar module in earth orbit to make sure everything was correct with the two vehicles before we ever committed them to the moon. >> apollo 8 was a big step forward, though even if successful, america would still be trailing the russians in the race to the moon. >> the soviets had sent spacecraft around the moon with animals to test whether they can send cosmonauts and try to defeat us not for a landing, but at least beat us to the goal of orbiting, and they were fairly successful. but then, in the soviet hierarchy, they had a big controversy. should we send the cosmonauts,

and the other people said, no, we should send one more time, just to make sure. >> the cia began getting signals that maybe the soviets were going to try a circum-lunar flight, a big figure eight around the moon, which would have massively undercut the p.r. potential of a lunar landing or even, you know, a lunar orbital flight. >> to make matters worse for nasa, the lunar module wasn't ready to go into space. it was months behind schedule. but instead of falling further behind the soviets, nasa officials had a bold idea. >> the lunar module, unfortunately, was delayed considerably, and so, nasa, again, in one of the -- i think one of great strokes of management substituted apollo 8 from an earth orbital flight to a lunar orbital flight. >> if it worked, america would actually leapfrog the soviets in the space race, and an

astronaut, not a cosmonaut, would be the first to fly around the moon. >> it was one of the big gambles that nasa at the direction of the president took in order to establish that america was better than the soviet union. >> a big gamble indeed. and for all, it was less than two years before that apollo 1 demonstrated just how complex every mission was. nobody knew that better than frank hormen, the point man in the apollo investigation. nasa tapped him to man the latest mission. >> i was called back, will you volunteer to take apollo 8 to the moon? i said, yes, we would be happy to. we found out that we would be going to the moon in august of 1968. we were sort of at the last minute, you know, just several months before we were scheduled to launch. but that's what we were being asked to do, so it wasn't for our to reason why. >> do or die not just for the three astronauts.

if they did it in 1968, and ended with a disaster, it would end the lunar quest for good. >> it certainly occurred to me that if it wasn't successful, we'd be remembered as a failure. >> on december 31st, apollo launched from kennedy space center florida. >> we have liftoff. >> just over two and a half hours later, the crew was given permission to become the first humans to leave earth orbit. >> go for dlr. >> using state-of-the-art computer, which had 1/13th the memory of a modern calculator, jim lovell fired the launcher's third stage and sent their craft hurling on its three-day journey to the moon. >> what does the ole moon look like? >> the moon is essentially gray. no color. >> as we came into earth rise, we were shocked, dumbfounded almost, to see this earth coming up. we hadn't seen it before. we weren't briefed about it. and so, it was a scramble for

cameras. >> on christmas eve, while orbiting the moon, this picture titled "earth rise" was photographed by anders. this shot has become one of the most reproduced photographs in history. >> it was the only thing in space that had any color. everyelse was black and white. the earth was blue, white clouds, and brownish-pink continents, and we were a long way from hole, and it was christmas. it was a nostalgic moment. bill anders said it best, we came all the way to the moon and what perked our interest was the earth. >> i'll take the credit. >> many men and women who have been in space, they're so mesmerized by what they see. there are no boundaries. there are no lines between countries. >> it gives you more of an actual true perspective of our existence on earth. because you look back at the

earth, and look how small it is and how you can, you know, cover it up with your thumb. and you realize we were so fortunate to have a body that was in the proper position with the sun with the proper mass and everything to allow life to begin. >> with the world engrossed in apollo 8 epic journey, the astronauts marked the holiday season by taking turns reading from the old testament. >> god said let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place and let the dry land appear, and it was so. and god called the dry land earth -- >> old testament is the basis of many of the world's religion, not just christian. so it affected most of people that would be listening to us, and we thought that was very appropriate. >> lovell relayed a sighting that delighted children worldwide. >> there is a santa claus. >> that's affirmative. >> just delay the christmas

celebration for after you came back? >> well, partly. but i planned ahead of time, and i gave my wife a present that essentially the card said, "from the man on the moon." [ laughter ] >> apollo 8 showed everyone up, certainly the soviets. but while america was now leading the space race, the end of the decade and jfk's deadline were quickly approaching. coming up, there was only one giant step left to take on the pathway to the moon, and it would mark an epic moment in human history. come on. oh! that's a lot of water up there. ♪ go. go. that's a nice shot.

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welcome back. i'm neil cavuto coming from the kennedy space center visitor complex in florida. president john kennedy set the goal to land a man on the moon before the decade of the ' 60s ended. under lyndon johnson, they caught up with the russians, and then passed them. but no man had yet set foot on the moon. and when president nixon took office, he wasn't about to see the soviets get there first. the next leg of the space race was a series of sprints. >> we launched the saturn v essentially every two months, really a remarkable mission.

>> each one bringing the astronauts closer to the goal. apollo 9 was the first to test the lunar module in space. apollo 10 launched in may 1969 had young and cernan flying within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface. that would be a dress rehearsal for the lunar landing of apollo 11, commanded by neil armstrong. >> what will your plans be in the extremely unlikely event that the lunar module does not come up off the lunar surface? >> that's an unpleasant thing to think about. we've chosen not to think about that at the present time. >> the other two crew members were command module pilots michael collins and edwin "buzz" aldrin, who would walk on the moon with armstrong. there was a lot of gossip back and forth, buzz, how it ended up neil armstrong was the first man. you were supposed to be, right?

>> there was an uncertainty, every e.v.a. done by the junior person. the senior person has the responsibility for much more requirements. it would seem to me that the outside activity should be the job of the junior person. >> but who was that supposed to be? was it going to be you? was it going to be armstrong? >> you know, there's a lot of discussion about the commander leading his troops somewhere, and the commander is the symbolic person, and neil was closer to the door, but i don't tell you which decision really -- >> it is weird, right? i mean -- >> no, it's not weird. i went home and told joan, my wife, frankly, i'd just assume be on a later mission where i wouldn't have to put up with all of the celebrity speech making and all of this for the rest of my life.

>> july 16th, 1969, showtime. >> you think about the countdown as the curtain opening, worry, the clouds, clear thinking, it's absolutely needed should something goes wrong. >> the launch, another dazzling pillar of fire was lost. the three-day, 240,000-mile trip from the earth to the moon without incident. >> we have a happy home. there's plenty of room for the three of us. >> then, four days into the mission came time to do what no astronaut had done before, decouple the lunar module from the command module and guide it safely to the moon. on their way down, armstrong and aldrin realize they were going long, beyond the landing zone, and into a boulder field. that's when armstrong took over, diverting from the planned computer path, he was now flying

above unfamiliar territory, searching for a safe spot to land, but running low on fuel. >> so we're on the far side of what was undesirable, and i'm reading the altitude, and about 100 feet -- >> 60. 60 seconds. >> 60 seconds. >> 100 feet, still a ways off the ground, and we've got 60 seconds. i'm getting a little concerned. >> so we got very tense in mission control. we're biting our nails and holding our breath, and worried we're going to run out of gas. 30 seconds. 15 seconds later according to my little stopwatch, i heard contact, engine stop, after a little pause, neil's very calmly said -- >> tranquility base here. the eagle has landed. >> and then i responded with that -- >> you got a bunch of guys about

to turn blue. thanks a lot. >> the lunar module landed on july 20th, 3:13 p.m. eastern time, 6 hours, 37 minutes later, neil armstrong took humanity's first step on the moon. what he said might be the most famous words of the 20th century, or any century. >> that's one step for man. one giant leap for mankind. >> mike and i asked him, i said, mike, have you thought about what you're going to say, when you get down on -- >> well, i don't know. when we land, i'll start thinking about it. well, you never know whether to take him seriously. >> armstrong and aldrin only spent 2 hours and 31 minutes out on the lunar surface, but it was enough time to bounce around, set up scientific experiments, collect moon rocks and take several enduringly famous photos. aldrin with the american flag, a football on the moon.

and probably the most iconic of all. >> i was just walking, and then he said, stop, hold it. and i stopped, looked at him, and he took the picture. people have asked me, what's the significance of this picture? rand i say, i got three words. location, location, location. like a 10-year-old kid. >> i'm looking at you like looking at the vast, desolate place. >> well, you use the same word that i did. but i preface desolate with magnificent, because of humanity's reaching outward and accomplishing something that people thought was impossible. >> apollo 11 made it to the moon just six months ahead of the deadline jfk had set at the beginning of the decade.

it was left to another president to congratulate the astronauts. >> for one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all of the people on this earth are truly one. >> president nixon had planned two different speeches, one if you succeeded, as you did, and one if you didn't. ordained as the men who went to the moon, to stay on the moon, these brave men, neil armstrong and edwin aldrin know there's no hope of their recovery, but they also know there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice. that would have been -- very worried about getting you back. >> well, it was pioneering. it was doing something that hadn't anywhere been done before. >> armstrong, aldrin splashed down in 1969. the space race was over.

stars and stripes -- coming up, in the 1960s, there was a hit tv show, "lost in space" and a movie "marooned." as long as humans have dreamed of exploring the heavens, show have shuttered at the possibility of never getting back. the astronauts of apollo 13, that's a nightmare that almost came true. after this. hoo-hoo. hoo-hoo...hoo-hoo. hoo-hoo hoo. sir... i'll get it together i promise... heeheehee. jimmy: ronny, how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico? ronny:i'd say happier than the pillsbury doughboy on his way to a baking convention. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

imagine if i told you that next week or next month or next year americans would be landing on the moon. how huge would that be? so it's kind of hard to believe that after apollo 11 the idea of going to the moon became almost old hat. after apollo 12 returned to the moon in november 1969, some people were actually feeling that these trips were getting routine. then, the world was reminded starkly they were anything but.

>> an analogy that i used, the first time you flew across the atlantic, it created a lot of news, but now, we got hundreds of flights across the atlantic and nobody cares. but we never lost our enthusiasm, our excitement, because we knew what we were doing was very, very important scientifically. >> of course, plenty of astronauts still wanted their shot to walk on the moon. one was allen shepard, the first american in space, who'd not been in space since the flight in 1969. >> he had been grounded for, i don't know, about nine years. wiser management had said, wait a second, shepard doesn't have that much training so far. we need to give him more training, would you mind taking 13, we'll give him 14? and i said, 13 would be fine. >> more than fine, it would give lovell, who had gone into space three times and even orbited the moon, his chance to walk on the surface that much sooner. apollo 13 launched at 13:13

military time. it was set to enter in lunar orbit the 13th of april. but the crew were having nothing but good luck. 56 hours into the flight, the crew finished a broadcast showing how comfortably they lived and worked in weightlessness. >> the crew of 13 wishing everyone a nice evening. >> nine minutes later, oxygen tank number two blew up causing the number one tank to also fail. >> houston, we've had a problem. >> houston, we had a problem, words that would be forever linked to commander jim lovell. >> when the explosion occurred, i thought to myself, why me? why now? and for a little while, i couldn't believe what was happening, and then, all of a sudden, i said, well, it is me, and it is now. so what's next? >> the command module's normal supply of electricity, light, water all lost. there was no heat source.

they were 200,000 miles from earth. and going in the wrong direction. did you ever actually think, "i might die"? >> well, we thought our chances were about 10%. >> did you really? >> oh, yeah, when we realized after we saw the oxygen escaping that things could be, you know, really bad. >> we have broken out into space. >> as the world watched, ground control in houston faced a formidable task. think of a way for the crew to fix their spaceship, test it, and then write up step-by-step procedures for the astronauts to follow just to get home. >> we immediately went to the simulators to try to do in the simulators what they had to do in the damaged apollo 13 spacecraft to get them home. >> coming up with some good ideas for you. >> one was to shut down the command module to conserve its remaining energy, and use the lunar module, the craft usually reserved for shuttling two

members of the crew to and from the moon, as a sort of lifeboat. >> we knew we had the lunar module, and it had, you know, power, and the batteries, and it had oxygen. >> not enough. >> no. but if we could use it to get us back home again, we were -- but if not, we were going to transmit as long as we could, so that the people would have some idea of what -- of what to do to correct for the future flights. >> we want to say you guys are doing real good work. >> so are you guys, jack. >> you all sounded so calm. but you in particular, captain, sounded so at ease. now, if that were me, i'd be barney fife. i'm 200,000 miles from emwho. my spaceship blew up. and i'm not feeling optimistic. but what went through your mind? >> well, a lot of people said, you didn't understand the situation. [ laughter ] >> another crisis, carbon dioxide levels were getting dangerously high. ground control fixed that by

instructing the crew to build a makeshift rig they called the mailbox, to purge the deadly gas from the craft and keep oxygen levels safe. this bought some time for the crew, who were barely breathing and running low on water. you lost 14 pounds? >> i didn't realize i'd lost 14 pounds. and i guess, you know, i was all charged up. >> they were sick, freezing, and tired, but safe for now. mission control's next task was to get the broken-down craft out of a lunar landing course and back on a free return to an earth trajectory. engineers in houston figured the crew could do this by executing two separate burns, or accelerations, made from the limping command module. towering that up after the long, cold sleep was one of mission control's greatest achievements. flight controllers generated the necessary procedures to do this in three days. something like that would normally take three months.

>> we got smarter and smarter and smarter, and then it became, let's don't make a mistake. >> people across the globe hoped for a miracle. they got one. the crew of apollo 13 splashed down safely in the south pacific ocean on april 17th. [ cheers and applause ] >> it was a failure in its initial mission, but in reality, it was a triumph in the ability of people to overcome adversity. >> that triumph likely gave allen shepard, the opportunity to walk on the moon nine months later. he famously made the moon the low-gravity driving range, launching two golf balls with a 6 iron he had smuggled aboard apollo 14. >> going to try a little sand trap shot here. >> i fantasized about landing on the moon, what i was going to do, how i was going to act on the moon when we surfaced. >> but lovell would never get the chance to go back. >> so close and yet so far.

>> apollo 15 launched july 26, 1971, with david scott, james irwin and alfred aboard. apollo 16 launched 1962, carrying young, mattingly and duke. they were the first missions to use the lunar roving vehicle, but the apollo missions were winding down. would man ever return to the moon? the astronauts of apollo 17 certainly hoped so. their amazing and what would turn out to be final mission after the break. [ grunts softly ] [ ding ] i sense you've overpacked, your stomach. try pepto to-go. it's pepto-bismol that fits in your pocket. relief can be yours, but your peanuts... are mine. ♪

not long after neil armstrong made the giant leap for mandied, a new eck precious entered our lexicon. if we could put a man on the moon, why can't we -- you fill in the blank.

you know, build a decent umbrella? or keep chewing gum from sticking to our shoe? a joke, yes. but it showed how americans viewed apollo as the ultimate human achievement. up to that point. or will it be for all time? it d times? >> i've been asked a million times, how does it feel to make that first step on the moon? i knew that when i made that first step it was mine, nobody could ever take it away from me. >> yet gene almost gave up that chance. he had done almost everything an astronaut could do, except he never set foot on the lunar surface. he was hoping to command a flight of his own. there was no guarantee that would even be an apollo 17 or that he would be on it. >> this is not the last but it's got to be the best.

>> his crew, geologist, jack schmi schmidt. the launch took place at night in 1972. the flsmoothly. while looking back at the earth he shot this photo now known as the blue marble picture. >> i took that from about 34,000 miles away. nasa tells me it's still the most requested photograph. >> aapproximatehe soon learned n command, while an honor, is also a heavy burden. >> you had to change some things at the last second. >> but, see, you can't push the stop button and say, oh, we have a problem, let's go talk about it. you get down to about 200 feet into what we call the dead man's curve. if the decent engine fails you

can't get out of there and go back into orbit. one way or the other you're going to land. then when i touched the surface, the blue light says shut the engine down because if you landed with the engine burning, it's possible the back pressure could have exploded the engine and of course it ruins your whole day. >> yeah. >> you press the button and all of a sudden you're feeling positive gravity. the first thing i remember is looking out at this mountainous valley and realize that i am now where no human being has ever been before. >> it's beautiful. it's one of the best moments of my life, i guarantee you. >> the total time we were out of that space craft was 22 hours. that's the longest any crew has been out there. >> you wanted to be out there all the time. >> jack and ron had never flown before. i said, listen, guys, you're

only coming this way once ♪ i was strolling on the moon one day ♪ >> enjoy, they did and i did. it was a natural response to our environment. >> going out further and station out longer let them exposed to the lunar element. every minute they spent outside involved risk as they soon discovered with the rover. >> the dust was rain is down on you and the moon and everything. >> dust equals disaster. >> it affects the absorption of your suit. you'll get warmer and use up cooler water faster. >> in the direct sunlight the temperature of the moon's surface rises well above the boiling point. >> we clamped a new dust lamp on made of taped together photographs. needless to say we became automotive members of auto

repair associations. >>. >> when you leave the earth you put yourself in a new risk. people say you have guts. i knew what i was doing. i didn't go to the moon not to come back. >> soon enough it was time to come back but not before the sight of the earth blooming with atmosphere and life in a cold black sky. >> i can promise you if i could take every human being with me for five minutes, stand them next to me on the surface of the moon and look back at the earth, the world might very well be a better place to live in today. there is no question in my mind that there is a creator of the universe. >> no atheist will say that once you're exposed and see what you have seen. >> this is not two dust particles. it's inconceivable. >> on december 14, 1972, after

collecting almost 250 pounds of lunar samples, the most of any crew, the mission was over. >> i started up the ladder and i looked down at my feet and i knew i wasn't coming back this way and i looked up there at the earth, multi-colored blues and whites, with purpose and in order, turning on an axis. i started up the ladder and i wanted to keep this moment going for a while. >> america's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. >> you were the last human being to touch that surface. how does that make you feel? >> humble. >> we leave as we came and god willing as we shall return. with peace and with hope for all

mankind. god speed to the crew of apollo 17. if. >> i'm convinced that the space program will come back. the country used to have something to look forward to. my grandmother on a farm in michigan had a ring telephone, no electricity, an outhouse and she watched the first guy walk on the moon. i'd like to see the next generation leave fingerprints like we left on the moon. i hope that happens. >> most of the apollo astronauts thought we would go back. that is the very nature of the civilization to continually build. yes, the space program as

continued, but we've never equaled the jaw dropping human accomplishments of apollo or captured the imagination of young americans the same way. with your natural debt reaching to the moon it's hard to see taxpayers spending much on space flight soon. maybe by spending a little time looking back we can at least learn anew, the lessons that apollo showed us that set our sights on a goal and the dream to achieve it, even the sky won't stop it. i couldn't wait to see her again. but i didn't want her to see my psoriasis. no matter how many ways i try to cover up, my psoriasis keeps showing up. all her focus is on me. but with these dry, cracked, red, flaky patches, i'm not sure if i want it to be. this is more than uncomfortable,

it's unacceptable. visit psoriasis.com where you can get refusing to hide, a free guide filled with simple strategies for living well with psoriasis. learn more at psoriasis.com and talk to your dermatologist.

on "fox files." >> please help me. i smoked too much k2. >> it's called spice. and it's killing across the country. >> this was hidden in the freezer? >> yeah, it was on top of all that meat. >> "fox files" goes on a raid of a store where they sell it. living large. dictator style. >> the vulgarity of some of these homes -- >> dictator style is bling, blitz, it's over the top. she went from real housewife to skinny girl mogul. >> i'm excited to be here. >> we're behind the scenes of bethenny frankel's latest venture. >> i'm not afraid to just own it and be who i am.